Restore/Migrate with ImportBuddy

BackupBuddy's ImportBuddy tool allows you to migrate or restore a site. If you build a site for a client on your localhost or a development site, you can migrate the site to your client's server once the build is complete. You can also use BackupBuddy to restore a site that has been hacked.

Download ImportBuddy from this page or Send ImportBuddy to a remote destination

Download a backup or send it directly to destination (hover backup in list for options).

Upload importbuddy.php & backup ZIP file to the destination server directory where you want your site restored to (ie into FTP directory /public_html/your.com/ or similar).

Types of Restorations and Migrations

Database-Only Restore

The WordPress database can be easily restored using ImportBuddy and the BackupBuddy database backup.

To perform a database-only restore:

Upload your Database Only backup file with the ImportBuddy file to your site.

Navigate to importbuddy.php in your web browser to follow the directions to restore the database (For example, the ImportBuddy location would be http://mysite.com/importbuddy.php). This will open ImportBuddy, which will walk you through the remaining steps.

You may also extract (unzip) your BackupBuddy Database Only backup onto your computer and then upload the extracted database .sql file using your cPanel or PHPmyAdmin control panel.

Restoring an Entire Site

An entire site may be restored by uploading the BackupBuddy Full Backup file and the ImportBuddy file to the directory on the hosting account where you want to restore your site.

Navigate to importbuddy.php in your web browser. If you uploaded to myuser/public_html/importbuddy.php, the URL to ImportBuddy may be http://mysite.com/importbuddy.php. Ask your hosting company if you need assistance figuring out where to place files.

The ImportBuddy file will then go through your BackupBuddy Full Backup file, give you several options to perform the restore, offer details of the process, and status updates until the restore process has been completed.

Migrating (Moving) an Entire Site to Another Directory or Server

BackupBuddy makes moving an entire WordPress site to another server easy. In the same way a BackupBuddy Full Backups can be used to restore a site, the ImportBuddy file can be used to migrate your entire site to another hosting server.

Upload the ImportBuddy file with your BackupBuddy Complete (Full) Backup file to your new directory or server, and run the ImportBuddy file from your browser. BackupBuddy will then walk you through all the steps to move your entire site to the new directory or server.

BackupBuddy Complete (Full) Backups are especially critical when changing hosts. With a BackupBuddy Full Backup, you don’t have to worry about relying on your previous host to help with the move. Many hosts or other tools skip key parts of the migration process (such as migrating serialized data), resulting in a damaged migration.